“Gunman!” I shout. “Ninety left, motorcycle!”
Hannigan reacts immediately, but shooting a fully clothed and protected rider without proper aiming is a one-in-a-million hit. The biker takes off as fast as he came.
I curse in my mind because I definitely revealed too much of myself now, and if Hannigan is as good as the reports say, he’ll notice what I did—but it was either that or be dead.
“Cover me!” I shout as I stand up with Lilian in my arms. She stares at me, her body shudders, and I see the consciousness fading from her.
Hannigan shoots and opens the car door. I push Lilian in the car, and she screams out loud; her eyes have a weakness in them that I have seen before, in those whom I have killed.
“Stay with me,” I say and slap her face, leaning over her.
Somewhere in the distance, I hear sirens.
“I’m going to put pressure on that wound,” I say, “It’ll hurt like shit, but that’s good.”
I rip open her blood-soaked shirt, crumble half of it under her, and use the other half as a compress to put pressure on her upper abdomen because I don’t have anything else.
Lilian screams more as I press.
Hannigan slams the door shut behind us and jumps into the driver’s seat.
“It’s a through-and-through,” I say. Hannigan is on the phone ASAP, coordinating with a team and calling Langone Health to inform them of our imminentarrival.
“She’s fading,” I tell Hannigan, as I slap her face again. It’s a real challenge to keep pressure when racing through a city with a thousand corners and turns.
“We’re almost there,” he says, and I hear the pressure in his voice.
“Stay with me,” I tell Lillian. “Focus on the pain. There is pain; feel the pain. It keeps you alive. Don’t tune out.”
I press slightly more, she gasps.
“Yes,” I say, “Good girl.”
Life returns to her for just the briefest of seconds, and then we’re there.
Doctors and nurses take over.
Hannigan rushes with her.
I stay back and breathe.
Collecting myself and my thoughts.
I have goosebumps on my skin.
My hand wanders mindlessly over my lips.
The lips Lilian just kissed.
And now she might die.
I am scared.
Scared of her dying, while I should be happy someone did the job for me.
Think about something else,I tell myself.
I focus on my surroundings.
